Hannah Arendt and Paul Ricoeur: Human Existence and Love of this World

Morny Joy (University of Calgary)

Not many people are aware of the considerable influence that Hannah Arendt had on Paul Ricoeur's writing on narrative. He was also impressed by her neologism "natality" which she coined to describe the wonder of life in this world. Ricoeur found in her a kindred spirit that co-incided with his own strong affirmation of life. This paper will undertake a comparison and contrast of their respective ideas about narrative, examining also their appeal to Kant and his work on imagination, in both the First and Third Critiques.

Morny Joy is Professor in the Dept. of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. Her PhD is from McGill University, Montreal. She studied at the University of Chicago with Paul Ricoeur on a two-year postdoctoral fellowship. She is a Life Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Helsinki in 2011. She researches and has published in the areas of philosophy and religion, postcolonialism, and intercultural studies in South and South-East Asia, as well as in diverse aspects of women and religion. Morny is on the Executive Committee of the International Association for the Study of Religion, and is Managing General Editor of their book series. In recent years, she has published two edited volumes: one on Continental Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion (Springer 2011), then After Appropriation: Explorations in Intercultural Philosophy and Religion (University of Calgary 2012). In 2013, the first of two volumes on Women and the Gift: Beyond the Given and the All-giving was published by Indiana University Press.

Professor Max Charlesworth was a Philosopher and Foundation Planning Dean of the Humanities at Deakin University.

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